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Spoiler Points for The Mist (2007) [R] 127 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $11.75
DVD Release Date: 25 March 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer
Click to read the non-spoiler review
Ok, so some people think it's wrong to give away the ending to a movie in the first place. And someone quite famous even supposedly said that the ending to this particular film should never be given away. At movieEVERYday.com spoilers are provided on top of non-spoiler for two main reasons: (1) sometimes, believe it or not, but people do have to leave the theatre early and miss the ending, and (2) sometimes there is a need to be able to have a place to discuss the ending of a film with others who saw it without spoiling the ending for others. So, the spoiler point pages are provided for many of the films reviewed at mEd.com.
That said here are the initial spoiler points:
• Norm (Chris Owen) the stock boy was taken and eaten by a giant creature with tentacles.
• Brent Norton's posse didn't get too far from the front door of the grocery store before they were captured and killed by terrier-sized spiders who wrapped them in webbing and used them to feed their baby spiders.
• The lights of they set up in the store window at night so they could 'see' out or whatever dumb reason they had, attracted giant mosquito cousins that probably wouldn't have been able to do much until the flying pterodactyl-like creatures came hunting for them. Had they put out all the lights, they probably would have been fine, but instead not only do they not put out the lights like logical people, they watch as Jim Grondin (William Sadler) and my candidate for the literary Darwin Awards on top of the entire town in 30 Days of Night, runs around turning on all the special lights he and his buddy spent the entire day getting ready in case of an emergency. These people are from Maine? Do they not have flying insects drawn to the lights in Maine? How could they be so utterly obtuse? Anyway, making matters worse, when the pterodactyl-like creatures start dive-bombing the window to eat the mosquitoes, they naturally break the fragile window that had been MacGyvered together in the first place, allowing the stinging insects to fly in and sting people as well as the pterodactyls to fly in and eat a few people. Nice work, Jim! You're a hero. Oh, and then they light up their torches they've gotten ready with buckets of lighter fluid and start setting each other on fire. Well, thank goodness Ollie (Toby Jones) the sharp shooting champ store asst. manager takes about 5 shots to finally kill the meanest of the pterodactyls before he eats David Drayton's son, Billy (Nathan Gamble), because that wouldn't have been better than his eventual fate—sarcasm intended.
• So, one guy gets so badly burned in the incident that David decides to lead a party next door to the pharmacy to get antibiotics and Silvadene® cream—they are smart enough to know about Silvadene, but not smart enough to figure out that when they find the pharmacy door open, they should probably turn around and run back to the grocery store. Yeah, instead, they go in looking for people. And, yes, they find them. All wrapped up in spider webbing. And no, that wasn't the sign still they needed to get the heck out of Dodge, nope, they needed actually to be nearly acid-webbed in half before they got the message. And, if you were hoping the moronic Darwin Award candidate Jim was going to bite the bullet you were not alone. But, alas, he was not to be the sacrificial lamb of this ill-conceived outing. Oh yeah, and as some foreshadowing for the ending which really is about futility, and maybe that's the message that writer / director Frank Darbont was trying to communicate after all, when they get back to the store, guess what? Yep, the dude died while they were gone, so he doesn’t need Silvadene® cream anymore.
• But, that's ok because meanwhile, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden) who was amazing, wasn't she??!!, has been rallying her troops. And since while they were at the pharmacy an MP there says "It's all our fault."—a detail the group decides to share for some unknown reason with the rest of their storemates, they decide to interrogate the three military guys in the store. Unfortunately, it's too for two of them to get interrogated. They already hung themselves. Leaving poor Wayne Jessup (Sam Witwer) to answer for their crimes. And, he reveals that the Arrowhead project has been all about trying to open a door to a parallel universe. Apparently the scientists haven't been reading enough Michael Crichton books to know that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. So, they learn the hard way and allow all sorts of weird creatures into Maine plus a weird mist. Not sure why or how the mist comes too and spreads, but it does. Anyway, well, once he tells this, he's a goner. Carmody's Crew sentences him to death by being thrown out of the store where he's quickly picked up and eaten, his bloody handprint on the door as some strange reference to Stephen King's Thinner perhaps. Well, with their human sacrifice to appease God, Carmody and her followers are satisfied and think they can sleep the night.
• This respite gives David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his followers a chance to plot their escape because they've not been corrupted into following Mrs. Carmody. So, Ollie puts 5 bags of groceries by Check Stand 2, and they plan to leave at dawn. Unfortunately for them, Carmody somehow discovers their plan. When the go to Check Stand 2, they find the groceries are gone, and she's sitting there smugly with accusations of them stealing food. She stands and orders her followers to retrieve the boy, Billy Drayton, and the whore, Amanda Dumfries, to be sacrificed for this treachery. Before they can succeed, however, Ollie shoots her in the head and kills her. Her followers are shocked and momentarily paralyzed with grief. This affords the group the opportunity to rush out of the store and head for David's Land Cruiser which seats eight. The plan is for the first person to get to the car to open all the doors so the others can pile in. And such a well-conceive plan it is. When it's over, only 5 remain alive. The rest become the bait for the creatures who eat them. Poor Ollie doesn't make it getting scooped up and landing the gun on the hood of the car. And, apparently willing to risk his live and everyone else's David opens the door to reach out and get the gun, which he almost doesn't make it then. And so what? Now he has a gun? With a few shells, 4 actually? Was this worth it? We'll find out soon.
Now here are the spoiler points for the ending:
• Remaining alive in the car are David, Amanda, Dan Miller (Jeffrey DeMunn), Irene (Frances Sternhagen), and, of course, Billy.
• So, rather than getting on some highway out of town as fast as possible, no, they waste fuel driving to the Drayton residence. Where, sadly, Mrs. Drayton has been webbed up for all to see. David is sick that he didn't repair the window like he promised he would. He cries for a while. They get moving again, driving with all the lights on as a beacon to attract the creatures, I guess, maybe they had a death wish? Who knows? Yeah, I think they had a death wish. Why else would they drive around with the lights on? It's not like the lights could help them see. So, they drive and find abandoned cars etc. Then the earth starts to shake, like an earthquake, like the one they felt at the store, and this giant creature walks overhead, apparently he's not attracted by the lights. And then they drive on and on to a winding forest road where they promptly run out of gas. Yeah, they apparently didn't think of going to a gas station. They did think about going to David's house to find his dead wife; but, no, nobody thought about trying to get some gas somewhere for the car. Probably, because if they had, they might have lived. Oops, I guess that spoiled it.
Yep, so they run out of gas. And, so now what? They all stare at one another with deeply forlorn looks. Billy has fallen asleep on Amanda's lap. They have no idea what to do? They've passed plenty of cars that might have had gas. But, instead of some brave attempt to go get help or gas which is what most people, especially people that have fought this hard to stay alive this long, would have done, especially a guy like David Drayton who left his son alone to go next door to get antibiotics and that pointless Silvadene® cream for the dying guy would have done, no, instead of doing what possibly irrationally heroic, testosterone and adrenalin-hyped men would have done, and gone out with the gun looking for gas, they look at each other and the gun. David counts the shells, but then you already know because I spoiled it earlier there are only four shells. "But there are five people" "I'll figure it out." So, David 'bravely' shoots them all in the head, yes, including his own son. No, I cannot answer how on earth he could have thought this would be the humane thing to do. It reminded me of Sophie's Choice where Sophie gives up her baby to save her son. At the time, I reviewed that film, yes back in my high school film critic days, I wrote that no mother would be capable of that choice. A mother would rather grab both her children and run in the opposite direction perhaps being shot trying to rescue her children rather than choosing to sacrifice one. I thought the movie was ruined because that choice was illogical. Here again, the same thing, this choice seems totally illogical. How could any group of 4 rational adults, no matter how desperate the odds, conclude this was the best solution.
• Well, not to worry, because if you're wondering about this and think it was illogical and stupid and callous and inhumane and certainly out of character for David Drayton, you've not been kicked in the gut yet. No, that's to come about 85 seconds later. For David Drayton, short another bullet, apparently incapable of smothering his son and using the last bullet on himself like any dignified sociopath would do, no, he gets out of the car and yells hoping to attract a big creature, I guess to come eat him. He yells and yells, but guess what. Yep, no creature comes to eat him. Here he's gone and shot everyone and there's nothing to fear. Maybe they are far enough away? Might they have realized this had they just waited in the car? Why didn't they just wait in the car? You know sing camp fire songs, tell stories, pass the time. You can live for 3 days, at least, with no water, and more than a month with no food. Why did they feel the need to commit suicide rather than just wait? Ok, so but that's not the kick in the gut yet. The kick comes some 20 seconds later, and just before the credits roll, in the form of an army caravan of tanks and trucks. They are killing creatures and moving on with the people they've saved. The mist is starting to lift and the big creatures and flying creatures are being killed and torched. Yeah, that's right, had they just sat there in the car and waited only 5 minutes, they would have been rescued. The only thing that would have made this ending worse would have been to have one of the trucks carrying the people from the grocery store with Jim Grondin sticking his tongue out at David as they rolled on by. After all, he's not going to be talked down to by a guy who went to college.
So what was Darabont's point?
Why would Frank Darabont think this was a good ending? What was he trying to prove? Was it all about futility or impatience? Was it just to shock us? Wasn't shocking enough to have David kill the car load including his son? Did he have to bear witness to the caravan? Would it have been better had he killed himself and then have the caravan roll by? That way you get the closure knowing the world is going to be ok, but you don't feel sickened by the way that David would have to feel the rest of his life, if he could live with the grief and pain of knowing he shot his own son in the head for no logical or good reason. Would it have been just to bleeping trite to have him be just about ready to get up the courage, which doesn't seem to take him long to muster to shoot everyone including his son in the head, and just as he's about to shoot, he hears the caravan of tanks and trucks and they are all saved? It's a 'happier' ending that the one we got. But, why on earth the futile ending? Was this God's way of teaching Dave the ultimate lesson? That you must always have faith? Or was this just plain mean spirited? Are there people that 'enjoy' this kind of ending and think, "Wow, yes, great. Darabont didn't sacrifice anything. This is as pure, dramatic, and real as it gets."?
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